Here, I use solid peer reviewed science combined with current rigorous ongoing observational data at a single reliable surface location to debunk the alarmist view of temperatures observed since 1998.

I personally created each of the following charts - data sources are listed below the last chart.

Current temperatures can only be put into proper perspective by looking back at least 140,000 years ago to the previous perfectly natural interglacial warming period (known as the Eemian). Vostok, Antarctica is one of the few places in the world where we have extremely accurate temperature data dating back 423,000 years as well as ongoing records of monthly mean temperatures. That makes Vostok the perfect place to put current temperatures into proper perspective.

52 Years of Temperature Data at VostokClick the image to enlarge it:

10 Thousand Years of Temperature Data at VostokClick the image to enlarge it:

140 Thousand Years of Temperature Data at VostokClick the image to enlarge it:

423 Thousand Years of Temperature Data at VostokClick the image to enlarge it:

The above chart demonstrates that the temperatures witnessed in the last decade do not even come close to the (very consistent) maximum temperatures witnessed in EACH of the previous FOUR perfectly normal, perfectly natural interglacial warming periods.

2 Thousand Year Warming Trend at VostokThere is NOTHING unusual about the latest warming!Click the image to enlarge it:

Note -- in the above chart -- the height of the various peaks above the black linear trend line. There have been at least five periods -- just in the last 2,000 years -- when a warming trend was further above the linear trend line than what is demonstrated in the warming of the 20th century.

Vostok Ice Core Data to 423,000 years ago:This file downloaded from this page (Click on "deutnat.txt").

To verify that the reference point for the Vostok Ice Core study is -55.5C, click here, then click on “click to view more”.

Discussion:

Recall that, within the larger context of an ongoing multi-million year Ice Age, we are currently experiencing one of about 100 perfectly natural, perfectly normal interglacial warming periods known to have occurred “in the last 2.5 million years”.

Click this image for a global perspective:

Note: In the above chart, we see that -- despite a strong (and perfectly natural) el Nino in the Pacific causing a *temporary* upward spike on the chart (much like 97/98) -- WoodForTrees.org documents that the most recent RSS satellite data now demonstrate a theory-falsifying 18 years, 8 months of global cooling (from 6/1997 through 1/2016):

By NOAA's own standards, ANY 15 year period without warming invalidates (with a 95% degree of certainty) ALL of the IPCC computer models (the sole foundation for all of the rest of the global warming hysteria mongering):

"The [computer model] simulations rule out (at the 95% level) zero trends [in global temperatures] for intervals of 15 yr or more, suggesting that an observed absence of warming of this duration is needed to create a discrepancy with the expected present-day warming rate."